A powerful weekend snowstorm blasted the Midwest, knocking out power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses across the region while triggering numerous crashes on interstates.
As of Monday morning, Michigan has the most outages with more than 90,000 customers in the dark, according toPowerOutage.us. Some 25,000 homes and businesses in Ohio have also lost power as the fierce winter storm, named Ezra by The Weather Channel, also brought intense winds.
In northern Iowa, a crash involving as many as 14 vehicles occurred in snowy conditions Sunday along Interstate 35, and on Monday, the road remained closed from Ames to the Minnesota state line — a stretch of highway about 100 miles long.
(MORE:What's Next For Winter Storm Ezra)
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz authorized the National Guard to support emergency winter storm operations. Snow totals reached 7 inches in some areas near the Twin Cities.
Areas of far northern Wisconsin totaled up to a foot of snow, and there was a report of more than 22 inches in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the highest totals of the winter storm so far.
Driving is expected to be treacherous across the region, so if you're heading home from the holidays or are commuting for any other reason, it's best to take it slow and check road conditions ahead of time to make sure there aren't any closures.
And behind the winter storm is a sharp cold front that will bring dangerous wind chills to the Northern Plains and a reality check to parts of the South that have been far warmer than average since Christmas.
